Sunday, June 30, 2013

BestAirPro Replacement

My A/C service contract gives me two visits per year for my furnace, when the technician checks the whole thing over and cleans it out. He also replaces the filter, and I have to pay 60 bucks for the filter, since consumables are not included. I just checked to see if these filters had to be that expensive, and found out thanks, Amazon! they don't! Even if this filter is a generic one, compared to the "real item", it works just the same. Perk: you can have 3 fresh ones for the price of 1 of the "authentic" kind. Since filters are better when fresh, it is a no-brainer: I buy the ones for 20 bucks a piece and replace them every 2 months, instead of every 6. Bingo, I win!

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10x20x1 (9.7 x 19.7) Filtrete 600 Filter by 3M

I wouldn't call myself a connoisseur of air filters by any means, so look elsewhere for comments on how well these perform as filters. I wanted to point out that there seems to be one small issue: the 1 inch thick filters appear to be too thin for my air ducts' cavities (which are 1 inch). When my system engages or disengages, I can hear these filters crashing into the the frames that hold them in place. Mine don't appear to have been crushed, and they have done this since they were new (and thus aren't clogged up), so I've concluded that they were manufactured too thin to stay securely in place.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Berkey BB Base without LED lamps

This product is exactly what it says it is a base for a Berkey. My only issues are color, minor in the scheme of things, and the price which I think is a little high.

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10X20x1 Fiberglass Furnace Filter Furnace Filters Mounted

The product quality is good, for your basic $1 fiberglass HVAC filter. The cardboard shipping box was strong and protected the filters from being crushed during shipment.

The big box hardware stores have greatly reduced inventory in these inexpensive air filters. They no longer stock my 10"x20" (standard for many apartments), the 16"x25" or the 14"x20". What they do stock in these sizes are expensive $15 filters, which my HVAC contractor does not recommend.

These fiberglass filters will keep your A/C cooling coil (or Heat Pump coil) from getting dirty or clogged. That is the purpose of a 1/2" or 1" deep filter. If you want improved air filtration, install a 4" deep HEPA Air Filter Housing. Forget the $15 and 1" deep filters at the big box hardware stores. They perform poorly for you and provide big profits for the retailers.

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Friday, June 28, 2013

Frigidaire FRA106HT1 10,000 BTU Through-the-Wall Room Air Conditioner

Ordered wall sleeve with unit, slides in and rests on foam strips, unit has 2 intakes on the back and uses included rear grill , quiet and cold, good value

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AllerAir 5000 Vocarb Replacement Carbon Filter

This was a good price for this filter. The filter arrived in original packaging and in good condition. These are the same wherever you purchase, so my main concern was the price.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

SPT WA-1140DE Dual-Hose 11,000-BTU Portable Air Conditioner

Its two years since I purchased this and happened upon this link today. I remember doing a great amount of research when I bought this unit. It is NOT like the one being reviewed with 2 stars.

One key point it has two hoses input and output (not one like many units out there). It's very good at evaporating the water it takes out of the room (the two hoses are supposedly responsible for this efficiency). I have yet to empty the tank. The unit comes with a window package that holds the tubes in place (its made of heavy duty plastic).

As to moving it around, no big problems it is a beast to move on the stairs, but ..... its an air conditioner, not a fan.

I normally use it to cool down a 20x20 room (9 foot ceilings). It does take longer than I'd like, but if it's a humid night, it gets the room in a "sleepable" condition in about 1 hour.

The reason for not giving it 5 stars is that the remote control gives you options that you can't get from the panel. If you lose the remote, you lose the functionality (there may be a secret set of buttons you push to get the function, I haven't figure them out yet). The manufacturer's site is lacking in docs.

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Honeywell AirGenius5 Air Cleaner

First of all, this air cleaner has a very modern look and feel. It is very nice and fits into any room of my house just fine.

I bought two air cleaners at the same time to get a feel for what I want/need in my home. In addition to this item, I bought Winix PlasmaWave 5300 Air Cleaner Model.

I opened the Honeywell first and placed it in my bedroom. After reading the instructions, I put it on setting 4 and told it to oscillate in my bedroom. I typically sleep with a fan (sometimes a white noise machine if it is too cold), but this unit was audible even over those sound sources. It is audible everywhere in the room and doesn't adjust at all on its own. When we woke, I admit that we both felt better than we had the last month or so. The smell was better, you could see less dust in the sunlight, and the unit was still chugging along just fine.

The next night, I tried the Winix. The Winix unit was significantly quieter. While it isn't quite as appealing visually, it seems to function much stronger. The Winix has a visual sensor to show what type of air quality it detects and adjusts the fan speed and technology used accordingly. At the lowest setting, the Winix uses 9W of power and is almost silent. It is impossible for me to hear from five feet or more away. The sleep mode on the Winix kept it quiet through the night as well no sounds competing with my other audio sources.

I'm happier with the Winix, but if you're looking for a specific use for an air cleaner, you can set the Honeywell to a strong setting, oscillate it, etc. It looks nicer as well. For constant use in your house, get the Winix. If you're looking to clean the aid during a party or other event, get the Honeywell.

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

BISSELL ProHeat 2X Healthy Home Upright Deep Cleaner

I purchased my 2x pro heat about 1 month ago. Prior to this I used a low end Bissell which I thought was good, but with one pass on this new cleaner I was impressed.

I want everyone to know that I recommend this cleaner, it far surpasses my lower end Bissell and the high end Hoover I borrowed from the neighbor.

Reading some of these other reviews I understand the problems with some of the negative reviews.

One person writes that the cleaner left all the water on the floor. There is a red filter/flapper on the dirty water resivour. If you get too much foam in the container there is a flap that closes the intake so that the foam does not get sucked in the cleaner. Go dump the dirty water. Then check that red flapper and make sure it is not stuck to the intake. If it is just tap the container and it will flip back down. If it is sticking then you may be using too much cleaner.

When you finish up make sure you fill the soap container with water and run rinse water over the last part of your carpet. You are asking for trouble if you do not do this. Regardless of what Bissell says, get the soap out of the lines before storing the cleaner.

If the carpet is so dirty that the water is sucking up black. Between cleanings make sure all the moving mechanisms do not have stuff caught up in them. Your asking for a belt to break otherwise.

Do not be a fool and use some home brewed serum for carpet cleaner. Use Bissell carpet cleaner products. This cleaner has a heater on-board so the home brew stuff might cook and create chaos! Never use oxyclean or comporable products, they are desintegrators of plastic. You can use Bissells oxy proucts and I recommend them. This is how I lost my old cleaner. When I was speaking with the salesperson I heard a gasp when I told them of my cleaning serum.

Some people are just not mechanically inclined so they do not think about these simple things. I hope my review allows people to understand some of the bad reviews. There is nothing wrong with this cleaner...and if I ever need to contact their customer service and I get lousy service they will not hear the end of it.

I am a director of customer service for another company.

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Sylvan Ozone Generator 3500mg/hr Ozone Output

After reading all the reviews, I splurged and bought one of these newer units with the "Always ON" feature for an old 1800 sq/ft house. It worked great removing the horrible stench of a dead squirrel in one of the walls that lingered for weeks even after removing the carcass. Bleach and deodorizers had very little affect especially with the high humidity.

For the first week, it worked great. I decided to use the "Always ON" feature while I stayed at a friend's place for the weekend. When I came back a day later, I noticed it was not outputting any ozone. The plate inside the unit was not lighting up usual purple so I contacted Sylvan, and they advised me to clean off the Ozone Plate. So I opened it up, and noticed a fruit fly on the plate. I wiped it off with some rubbing alcohol and it revived the dead unit, but it was flickering on and off and parts of the plate were not lighting up. After contacting Sylvan, they agreed to send me replacement ozone plate which I told them I would replace myself.

I gave this product 3 stars, because when it works, it does a great job, but I believe the issues I had with this unit is due to lack of features. It needs a filter for the intake port to keep debris and insects from entering the intake port and shorting out the ozone plate. I believe it has a 400cfm fan, which will pull in a lot of air and particles through the unit.

If I can figure out it was in fact the fly that shorted the plate out and not the quality of the parts used inside, I may end up keeping it and customize it to suit me better like adding a filter and installing a different timer.

Also, Sylvan's customer service is First Class!

**UPDATE 8/1/10***

The unit is completely dead besides the fan. I opened up the unit, opened the case for the power supply and I noticed a 22uF 400V capacitor had a nice hole in it. This is the reason why the Ozone Plate is not working and the reason why it was flickering before. The manufacturer of the capacitors are JakeC, which is a known low quality brand from China.

I will try to replace the bad capacitor and see how it goes.

**UPDATE 8/14/10**

After replacing the bad 22uF 400V capacitor and the other one (for safe measure), it was still dead. Since most of the PCB and components were covered in epoxy, the only thing I could test were the two 13005 transistors mounted on the heat sink (metal lower panel). Both transistors were shorted so I replaced them with high quality parts (part# ST13005) and now it's back up and running. I ran it for a 24 hour cycle in our shed, and it's been running fine without issues.

Also, the front grill is starting to oxidize from the ozone after (3) 24-hour cycles, and (10) 1-hour cycles). I assumed it was stainless steel but now it doesn't appear so.

**UPDATE 8/17/10**

It has been running great and has been doing a good job even after running it for 48 hours straight. I contacted Sylvan about the repair I made, and they offered to compensate me for my time, which shows that they do care about their customers, but I gladly declined.

**UPDATE 10/30/10**

My unit is still working well. I haven't had the need to use it as much, since it did a very good job initially by eliminating the odors that wouldn't go away. I use it maybe once a month to freshen the house and it still outputs huge amounts of ozone. For anyone not very familiar with Ozone Generators, especially ones that output this much ozone, they can be hazardous to your health so I would recommend only using it when there are no people/pets in the house (use with caution). When I walk into the house while the Ozone generator is running, I have a very difficult time breathing. Let the room air out for an hour or two and/or open windows after it has shut off.

I also want to add that long term use of this machine is not wise. Our 3 month old leather furniture ($2,500) is beginning to crack in some areas (non-seating areas) from the initial "bombing". I also ran this in my car for an hour and when I went to grab the steering wheel (has a rubbery/plastic cover), it felt very sticky. I realized the ozone was starting to break down (oxidize) the steering wheel cover which shows how damaging this much ozone can be things.

**UPDATE 12/21/12**

I've used this maybe a total of 10 times since my original review and it's still working well. Apparently, the repairs I made are still holding up. I recently quit smoking and used this in my car to get rid of the lingering smoke smell. Ran it for 30 minutes and now I cannot tell I ever smoked in there.

I read a couple of reviews on here and it appears that other people are having the same issues. If the manufacturer used better parts inside the power supply, I'm sure this product would have 5 star reviews across the board because this ozone generator is very effective when it works.

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

AmairCare VOC Cartridge

Fit perfectly and arrived quickly. I would highly recommend Amaircare products as they are top quality I have had my air cleaner for over 10 years and it's still going strong!

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Mini RO System 50GPD

Although I will say it goes together easily it does not produce clean water. My water supply goes in at 320-350 ppm and comes out around 90 ppm..I was hoping for better results and am activly looking for a better unit...spend more money if you want better results..this is completly worthless to me.

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Monday, June 24, 2013

Dirt Devil UD40275 Power Path Dual Stage Cyclonic Bagless Upright

I bought this to replace a cheap bagless vacuum cleaner I'd bought several years ago during a Black Friday sale. Said vacuum didn't pick up dirt very well, clogged easily (both the hose to the dirt compartment and the area around the 'filter' at the top of the compartment). It also didn't have a hose. However, until I used this Dirt Devil on my carpet, I had no idea just how bad it was.

This vacuum picks up dirt better than the last bagged vacuum I owned. I learned this in an unfortunate way; skipping over the instructions on how to empty it, I ended up dumping the contents partly on my hand. Those contents were a very thin, almost rice-like powder, nothing like what my previous vacuums had picked up. Best of all, when I ran it over some loose cat litter, it didn't spit anything back out at me like many vacuums. The hose is generous with several nifty attachments (I haven't used them all but soon will) and the sucking power is strong enough to yank my hands towards the hose. But be careful when you first remove the vacuum from the styrofoam packing; I was repeatedly shocked when I vacuumed my floor, and badly. I recommend running a dryer sheet over the hose before using it the first time (unless you let it sit out for a while).

Speaking of the bagless compartment, it has easy removal to empty and the bottom-opening method is rather clever once you know it's there. The HEPA and foam filter are also very easy to get to (pop open the catch once you've removed the collecting compartment, and voila!). It's also about double the size of my old one. I vacuumed a mid-size living room and it was only 75% full (I have a Maine Coon cat, so most of it was fur). The old vacuum had to be emptied halfway through most of the time.

However, there are a few minor problems with this vacuum. The box suggests it can be used on bare floor, but it merely blew a small area of dirt all over the kitchen. But I'll not quibble over that since vacuums are meant for carpets anyway. The biggest complaint I have is that the collecting container falls out. It has yet to fall out during use, thankfully, but you should've heard me scream when it first fell out as I was putting it away. This was before I realized that the container is utterly sealed. No mess to clean up if it tips over (though at the time, I believe it was already empty call it a habit from the old vacuum that had repeated spills). It seems to come loose if you set it down too hard. It's fairly secure when simply moving the vacuum back and forth, or even shaking the handle. It's a vertical jarring that does it.

This vacuum is quite heavy, so I'm not sure it'd be good for taking up and down stairs. But the heaviness is all in the bottom of the vacuum, and helps push the vacuum onto the carpet. So it's a trade-off. I can't tell you if there's any extra oomph to be had by the cyclonic airflow. I did notice the cat hair was more evenly distributed rather than clumping in one spot and restricting the flow. There's also quite a bit of exhaust air, but I didn't notice it having as bad a dusty/dirty quality to it as most vacuums, so perhaps the HEPA filter matters. Lastly, I'm 5'9 and most vacuums tend to have me stooping slightly, but this one seemed to be tall enough for me. Personally, I'm pretty happy with the Dirt Devil UD40275, flaws and all. Good value for the price.

NewAir AC12000H 12,000 BTU Heat Pump Portable Air Conditioner

works great heating this last winter and cooling this 105* degree summer (whew).

I.ve had no problems you do have to exhaust the air hose out the window, but it has

a kit for that included. you have to drain the water some where it does have a float if the tank fills

but rolling it somewhere to drain would be such a pain, so i ran a drain line outside.

im getting one for my mom now for a backup incase her unit fails. this unit does plug into a 115v outlet

no special plug needed.

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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Enviracaire 374 Sq Ft HEPA Air Purifier

Yes I was so happy with this product I shiatted my pants!! I am still washing out the stains!! great filter, not a great price but you get what you pay for.

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Anion Air Purifier with LED night light. This newest Ionic Air Purifier

It's easy to use and makes me feel comfortable. Having the LED light is a plus. It turns on when it's too dark and shuts down when it's bright enough. I have a big air purifier that cost me over a hundred dollars and I feel this one works just as good.

Overall, I'm satisfied with this product.

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Saturday, June 22, 2013

Miele Active Air Clean Filter

The title of this product is the "Miele Galaxy Series HEPA Filter for S4 and S5 Series", but what actually gets shipped is SF-AAC 30 (the Active Air Clean filter), not a miele HEPA filter. Those with serious allergies need to take note.

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SPT AC-7013 Magic Clean Air Cleaner

I wanted a PCO air purifier to have in my office, but this was too rinkydink for my tastes. I has four light-emitting diodes, one in each corner. I've seen small PCO filters that were made for use in a car that used LEDS, but for the space this fan takes up, I think it is way under lit. It seemed to add more odor to the room from its own off-gassing than it cleared up. I ran it for about two hours. It was very quiet on low speed at first, but then it started making a scraping/bearing noise. I sent it back and will try the NanoBreeze next. I don't have anything against Sunpentown. I have a humidifier and a portable air conditioner from them that I am very happy with. The PCO fan was unacceptable.

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Friday, June 21, 2013

Decorative Bamboo Charcoal

My husband has really bad alergies and we have 3 cats and 1 inside dog and ever since I got this he has not had any problems. Plus I love it as decoration!

19002 Honeywell Air Cleaner Carbon Replacement Filter

Bought it for my honeywell machine. The dimensions are correct and its decent but not great, on the thin side and you can tell its cut from a larger roll of generic filter. It does in a pinch but it is by no means idea

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Sunpentown SF-609 Evaporative Air Cooler

but not cool air. Doesn't really make much difference the temperature of the water or how much ice (yes, ice) you add, it doesn't do much to cool the air temperature. Dropped the temperature a whopping 1.3 degrees F in my first test (from 85.3 degrees to 84 degrees), and 0.9 degrees F in my second test. Don't bother.

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Heaven Fresh NaturoPure HF 300C Air Purifier

I have had this product for several weeks and it seems to clean the air in my living room. It runs pretty quiet on all speeds. The only problem i have with this air cleaner is that i can't see the UV light, so i don't know if it's burned out or not. I have another air cleaner product

that has the UV light and i can see it thru the filter, so i know when it burns out.

Thank you

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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Dyson DC41 Upright Ball Vacuum

I'm never brand loyal. I buy generics and shop around for deals. But Dyson has really turned that around on me. Ever since I tried the one my mother bought 6 years ago, I've never used anything else. I originally bought one for heavy use and a lighter (more portable) one for daily use a couple years later. This model in particular is of the original design. They are heavy and more work to move around, but the extra suction is worth it. My brother has severe allergies that the vacuum helped to alleviate.

A few additional notes:

-Dumping of dust is fast and easy. Just unlatch, then press a button which allow the bottom to fall out.

-Cord is still manual roll up, they have some models which allow you to press a button and the cord will retract.

-Hair/long fibers will get rolled up in the head. You can actually remove the inside to clean it out without much fuss.

-Love the amount of attachments available and what they can do.

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Genuine Dyson DC17 Pre-Filter Assembly

I bought this filter because the rubber on my original filter had ripped and was just not doing as good of a job. Filter arrived and put it in vacuum, it fit but seemed a little to tight could hardly shut the lid back down and it wasn't even labeled like the picture or the original filter. My motor on my dyson burnt up and started throwing sparks with in 5 uses. I now have had to throw my $600 vacuum away!!! Make sure you get the real deal not a generic version of this filter!!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Honeywell HEPAClean Air Purifier Replacement Filter

What can I say, it fits properly and does the job well. It does seem that they have added an extra layer of carbon to the filter since I last saw one. Don't know if that eliminates the need for the pre-filter, but I use the pre-filter anyway.

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